WEBVTT

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when you think of light traveling down some kind of narrow channel which I know

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you do all the time you probably think of high-speed internet connections

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telephone lines or even those pre-lit Christmas trees but did you know that

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Optical connections are actually taking the place of traditional metal traces in

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actual computer chips this field is called silicon photonics and it's not

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some kind of gimmicky speculative technology products that use silicon

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photonics are already being deployed in data centers by the millions to help

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keep up with how much pressure we're increasingly putting on cloud systems

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these days especially considering how rapidly AI is expanding the basic idea

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is to use photons instead of electrons to move data around the best part is

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that chip makers are manufacturing the means to do so directly onto silicon

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Wafers meaning that you don't need costly exotic materials in order to pull

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this off silicon photonics uses wave guides that the light can move through

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as well as freaking laser beams as a light Source these hybrid silicon lasers

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are made from both silicon and other semiconductors such as indium and

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gallium compounds so they can be built directly onto the chip obviating the

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need for extra laser equipment outside the chip which can be costly this

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technology has already been in use for a few years in transceivers that convert

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electrical signals to and from Optical ones you plug them into a server and use

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fiber optic cable to connect to another server elsewhere in a data center a to

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several kilometers away a piece of tech that's also proven useful for supporting

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current 5G networks but there's been a more recent development that might make

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those external transceivers Obsolete and we'll tell you about it right after we

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thank War Thunder for sponsoring this video War Thunder is a free-to-play

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PC Mac PlayStation and Xbox so get hooked up with some premium bonuses

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today by clicking the link below instead of relying on a separate transceiver to

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handle the actual photonics part of the chain recent work has looked more at

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integrating silicon photonics directly onto a chip package in 2022 Intel showed

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off a laser setup that used tiny micro rings to save enough space to fit the

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actual photonics next to the die with each ring producing different light

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wavelengths allowing more data to be transferred than if you just used a

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single wavelength Intel also revealed a chip they had been working on for DARPA

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in 2023 that used Optical chiplets these

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chiplets sit on the same package as the actual compute die and are responsible

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for doing the conversions between electrical and Optical so you'd be

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connecting fiber optics directly to these chiplets again eliminating the

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need for external transceivers when this Tech hits the marketplace but beyond the

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cost advantages of moving photonics as close to the compute die as possible we

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might need silicon photonics more and more as the years go by as our bandwidth

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needs just continue to grow there's a good chance we'll start hitting the

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limits of what's possible with standard metal traces in terms of power or data

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Integrity the thinking is that it could be cheaper to use silicon photonics

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instead of trying to find ways to shove more and more data down a metal trace

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and that photonics could offer a superior error rate to traditional

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Electronics but silicon photonics isn't just about ensuring the cloud can

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continue to deliver fine YouTube videos like this one to your screen because the

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general idea is put Optical technology into silicon it has other applications

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such as liar for self-driving cars Healthcare Diagnostics that involve

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shooting light into tissues and even better sensors for AR and VR headsets

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it's unclear if silicon photonics will have a big role to play in home PCS at

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some point but if you really want Optical Tech and your personal rig in

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the meantime you could always just put in a Blu-ray Drive they're not dead yet

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and thank you for popping by this episode of techwiki like the video if

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you like it and dislike it if you dislike it check out our other videos comment below with video suggestions and

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don't forget to subscribe and follow did you get all that okay